December 14, 2008

Third Sunday of Advent (B)

Rev. Richard Eslinger  

  Is 61:1-2a,10-11  X   Lk 1:46-50, 53-54   X  1 Thess 5:16-24 X Jn 1:6-8,19-28

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     The Gospel Lection tells of John’s activities at the Jordan and how the leadership in Jerusalem “sent priests and Levites to him.”  And as if that was not enough of a delegation, some Pharisees were also sent to question him.  If it had happened in our days, the Evangelist might have begun that when John began preaching and baptizing at the Jordan, “the religious elite flew down to Jericho JetPark in their business jets and rode in limousines to where John was gathering the crowds.”  They are VIP visitors and have come all this way to ask John some pointed questions—questions already discussed in the highest circles of religious and political authority back up in Jerusalem.  They have not come to attend to John’s proclamation or to be baptized.  Their mission is one of blunt interrogation.  They have some questions and they want them answered.

 

     The scene there at the Jordan is odd, filled with curiosity.  It resembles that game where you try to find out who someone is by asking a question with the respondent only able to say “I am not…” or “I am.”  So the game begins.  The priests and Levites ask John, “Who are you?”  Clearly they are fishing for the answer, “I am the Messiah.”  For if that is the answer, then the whole world is about to be turned upside down and their entrenched power will be overturned as well.  If this is the Christ, God’s anointed, then they have much to fear because he will bring glad tidings to the poor and healing to the brokenhearted.  If John is the Messiah, liberty will come to captives and release to prisoners.  If John is the Messiah, then the year of the Lord’s favor is about to dawn.  If John is the Messiah, then the old powers will be dethroned and “a day of vindication by our God” will come to pass.  But the Baptist answers as in the game, “I am not the Christ.”  So the game goes on.  “Are you Elijah?”  For as the song puts it, if these are the days of Elijah,

 

It's the year of Jubilee!
And out of Zion's hill salvation comes!*

 

And curiously, the Baptist still responds, “I am not.”  He’s not Elijah.  And John is not the prophet either.  No, he is exactly the inverse of the One who announces that “I am.”  “I am,…living water,…bread of bread,…resurrection and life.”  John declares about himself to the contrary:  “I am not.”  Well, John’s interrogators have run through the big items on their list.  Christ? “Not.”  Elijah? “Not.”  The prophet?  “No.”  The priests and Levites and Pharisees look at each other, shrug their shoulders and roll their eyes.  “All this way and nothing to show for it.  Just a crazy guy out in the desert, his voice echoing off the cliffs, and the stench of the crowd.”  Still, those words do echo oddly and the crowd seems anxious to hear what he says.  Yet the delegation from up in Jerusalem has heard him insist—“Not,” “Not,” No!”  Maybe, the game is over before it even started.  “Not.”

 

     Maybe the delegation missed it.  Did they get there too late to hear John?  The Gospel Evangelist sang about John in the Prologue and introduced his appearance in the same way.  The Baptist is a martyr.  He is the one who comes “for testimony.”  He gives witness to the light, proclaims the light.  That is what a martyr is and does.  Oh, just like many of those who bear testimony, the Baptist will be martyred for his audacity of proclaiming the light that is coming into the world.  The church remembers that martyrdom on August 29^th.  But John’s testimony was not limited just to his execution.  He bore witness to the light in his preaching and in his baptizing.  And through it all, he gave testimony to the light that was coming into the world.  He was not that light.  Of course, all of us who have been baptized into Christ, his death and rising, are also, by that very sacrament, given the same vocation—to bear witness to the light.  We are all martyrs, after all!  Not only those whose witness culminates in martyrdom, but all of the baptized in Christ are by that act become those who testify to the light,…martyrs.  Now we may be called to bear witness to the light in many small, almost unnoticed ways.  Christians may find themselves in a group where persons of other races or cultures are the objects of jokes or coarse humor.  Will a Christian man or woman bear witness to the light?  Baptized youth will find themselves in crowds of other kids where the music glorifies violence and disrespect to women.  Will Christian youth bear witness to the light?  We live in what Mother Theresa accurately named “a culture of death.”  And this culture of death endures by way of an attitude that there are things we don’t talk about, like abortion.  Will we fulfill our baptismal vocation and become martyrs?  Will we bear testimony to the light? 

 

     Of course, the officials seem to have missed this vocation of the one they were sent to investigate.  They had not heard St. John sing in the Prologue that the Baptist “came for testimony, to testify to the light.”  So they ask, “Who are you so we can give an answer to those who sent us?”.  Poor VIP’s.  They hadn’t listened to the Gospel Lection.  They still search for an answer.  And with them, many in our world haven’t heard either.  Some may be still searching, and it is up to us to give testimony to the light.

 

     Then, in response to the question, “Who are you,” the Baptist finally gives a positive answer.  He is the voice crying in the desert.  He is the voice announcing, “make straight the way of the Lord.”  Now the testimony comes into focus.  It is the Messiah, coming into the world, coming to the Jordan, who is the light.  John’s role is seen in the ancient icons of the baptism of the Lord.  Jesus stands in the Jordan, hands extended downward in the act of blessing our baptismal waters.  Above Christ, the Spirit descends from heaven.  And the Baptist stands on the bank of the stream, pouring water upon the One who is the living water.  John is right in his testimony.  The baptizer is not the Messiah.  But he does see the Spirit descend and rest on Jesus.  The Spirit abides in the Son as the Son abides in the Father.  The mystery of the Holy Trinity is all there, hidden and proclaimed, in the icon of Jesus’ baptism by John.

 

     So it is only fitting that John would add that he is not even worthy to untie the sandal strap of the One who is coming after him.  In the presence of such holiness and truth, who would not confess, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you,…”?  Still, just as Jesus does not shun the Virgin’s womb, he also does not shun the ministry of the Baptist.  And the Lord Christ does not shun even his unworthy people gathered in this holy place.  Still as those welcomed by Christ, blessed with his living water and nourished by his bread of life, we are not to remain silent.  Now, our vocation is to join voices with the St. John the Baptist and bear testimony to the light.  Then it may be said of us what St. Augustine said of the Baptist:

 

John is the voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning.**

Our is “ a voice for a time,”  bearing testimony to the light.  May it echo the good news in this world of darkness all our days, that we may sing it forever.

Amen.

 

 

*“Days of Elijah.”   Words and Music by Robin Mark

** St. Augustine (Sermon 293, 1-3; PL 38, 1327-1328),